Holland House St John Formal Dining Table
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Sitting Room
Combining rustic antiques with refined accessories, Marshall Watson packs a lot of charm into a small sitting room that doubles as a bedroom. Walls upholstered in Cowtan & Tout's Botanique Spectaculaire add a graphic punch, and a tight color palette ties all the elements together. The sleeper sofa is a Watson design.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Living Room
Hand-troweled plaster with cut straw mixed in gives the living room walls rough texture and depth. Striping around doors, window frames, and baseboards adds architectural interest. The sofa, covered in a Stroheim & Romann fabric, is from the Marshall Watson Collection. A Cecil Beaton-attributed portrait of the owner's grandmother hangs above the fireplace mantel, designed by McMillan Cabinetmakers.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Kitchen Nook
Watson placed the dining area at the far end of the living room, near a window, to take advantage of the light.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Kitchen
The diamond-patterned cabinetry in the kitchen was inspired by a Gustavian sideboard. Wall tiles are Jerusalem Gold tumbled mosaic tiles from Urban Archaeology. Backsplash tiles are Lexington Border in Autumn from Alan Court & Associates.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Bedroom
Inspired by French antique beds glimpsed in a Kentucky shop, the twin beds were designed by Marshall Watson Interiors, created by C&S Woodworking, and gilded, glazed, and hand-painted by Kay Lowinger. The front green pillows are Ralph Lauren's Marston Gate in sage. The wall paint is a custom glaze by Judy Mulligan, who also did most of the plasterwork and stencil striping in the house.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Bedroom
The master bedroom is small and plain. To infuse it with atmosphere, Watson chose an 1850s English four-poster bed and had it converted to king size.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Shelf
Watson mounted a pair of Italian gilded shell brackets above two living room doorways to punctuate the architecture. "You don't have to put moldings everywhere -- you can do something like this and it becomes an architectural plinth or a Baroque cartouche," he says.
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Wallpaper
"I've waited a long time to use this fabric, Cowtan & Tout's Botanique Spectaculaire. One of my all-time favorites." --Designer Marshall Watson
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French Fantasy: Cabinet
A small china cabinet established the scale for all of the furnishings in the project.
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French Fantasy: Sofa
The Marshall love seat is from the designer's Lake Como Collection for Lewis Mittman. "I find ideas for the collection when I travel, as well as when I'm working on projects -- these clients had great pieces. Good proportions and clean lines never go out of style."
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Table
The color palette for this table setting was prompted by the romantic memory of a vacation in the Loire Valley where Watson remembers wisteria framing the open window of a manor house.
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French Fantasy: Frank Living
Watson frequently stops by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to visit the Wrightsman Galleries and the Frank Lloyd Wright living room. "Everything about the room is 'right' and comfortable, even the fact that the windows are below eye level."
Photo by Nathan Schroder
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French Fantasy: Portrait
An inherited portrait attributed to Cecil Beaton inspired the formal, but casual, style of the carriage house.
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French Fantasy: Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel was an early-19th-century German architect whose work is "Neoclassicism boiled down to a modern sensibility. He had to have been an influence on Hollywood Regency style."
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French Fantasy: The Magic Flute
Schinkel favorites include the Neue Pavilion in the park at Charlottenburg and his c. 1815 sets for The Magic Flute.
Holland House St John Formal Dining Table
Source: https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/house-tours/g172/a-french-fantasy-0807/
